


out of the dark came the light

by outruntheavalanche



Series: Endgame Fix-Its/Patch-Ups/Continuations/AUs/etc. [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Community: mcu_exchange, Don't copy to another site, F/M, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, mentions of past character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-29 13:56:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19401706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/outruntheavalanche/pseuds/outruntheavalanche
Summary: He doesn’t want to think about living in a world without her.





	out of the dark came the light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SinginInTheRaine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SinginInTheRaine/gifts).



> I had trouble deciding between two different fics so you're getting two from me, [](http://www.archiveofourown.org/users/SinginInTheRaine/profile)[**SinginInTheRaine**](http://www.archiveofourown.org/users/SinginInTheRaine/)!
> 
> Thanks to [](http://www.archiveofourown.org/users/grisecklie/profile)[**grisecklie**](http://www.archiveofourown.org/users/grisecklie/) for the beta!
> 
> Title from "Best Days On Earth," by Trashcan Sinatras.

Afterwards, most of them end up taking a nice, long vacation from superheroing and saving the world. Carol collects her wife and their daughter—neither of whom she’s seen in years—and they go on a cruise aimed exclusively at the formerly Decimated. Thor is off-world, gallivanting about the galaxy with the Guardians, while Brunnhilde is drafting up coronation plans in New Asgard. Peter’s gone off on a school trip to Europe. Steve thinks he heard Pepper talking about taking Morgan—and Happy—to their summer cottage for a bit, to recuperate.

Steve—well, Steve doesn’t have any plans. And neither does Natasha.

“I was thinking about opening that orphanage,” Natasha muses when Steve walks into the kitchen to put his empty plates in the sink.

Natasha’s parked at the kitchen island and she’s hunched over a laptop, hunting-and-pecking at the screen.

They’re the only ones still calling the newly rebuilt Avengers headquarters home. Most everyone else has dispersed, intent on enjoying their sudden cache of free time. 

“That sounds an awful lot like work,” Steve says, as he rinses the plates and dries them off with a hand-towel.

Natasha looks up from the laptop. “I might as well, you know? There are a lot of kids out there whose parents didn’t come back for one reason or another,” she says, with a sigh. 

“I know, Nat,” Steve says, feeling a sharp twist of guilt that he quickly pushes away. 

They’d known that not everyone would come back, not if they weren’t one of the Decimated. Loki hadn’t come back, neither had Gamora, nor Clint. There isn’t a day that goes by when Steve doesn’t wish he’d been able to do something more. 

Natasha sighs and rakes a hand through her hair. “I didn’t mean to—”

“I know. It’s fine,” he says, offering her a thin smile. He reaches out toward her and Natasha slips her hand into his, without another word.

“I just… This is something I have to do,” she says, squeezing onto Steve’s fingers. “This is something I _can_ do.”

“And I’ll be there to support you every step of the way,” Steve says, squeezing back.

Natasha smiles at him and, for a moment, Steve is nearly blinded by how lovely she is. Her green eyes sparkle like emeralds, and her vibrantly red hair falls over her shoulders like silk. But beyond that, she has a truly beautiful, selfless soul. And when Steve thinks about how close he’d—they’d come to losing Natasha, he can’t help but think about a world without Natasha’s bright light within it. 

What a miserable, lonely place that would be. He doesn’t want to think about living in a world without her.

Steve aches for Clint, for the sacrifice he made, and for Laura and the kids too. But he can’t help but feel grateful Natasha was the one who came back.

And he can’t help but feel guilty that the only guilt he felt was that he was relieved it was Natasha who stepped off that platform.


End file.
